Go back to the prosperous days and become a layman
Chapter 445 444 Pickled Vegetables
Chapter 445 444 Pickled Vegetables
The current transportation capacity is limited. For example, when harvesting cabbage and sweet potatoes, both the city and the commune will actively mobilize transportation capacity to ensure that the supplies can reach the residents in a timely manner.
Transportation capacity also costs money, especially trucks, which not only takes time but also requires fuel.
In order to motivate more people, the city will give more quotas to all vehicle owners, and the commune will also give some local products to individual drivers.
The cabbage this time was given to Tian Genfu by the commune. Although it was frozen, it was large in quantity.
In addition, Qian Zhongping's family's food supply was not with the unit, so they bought a ration of cabbage for themselves a few days ago.
With the addition of the two, Qian Zhongping's cabbage could not be eaten, especially since they were all frozen. If they were not eaten in time, they would only rot.
In order to avoid waste, Qian Zhongping not only shared some with close relatives, but also wanted to give some to Tang Zhitong.
Unexpectedly, he hit the mark. After learning that Tang Zhitong had been promoted to deputy section chief, the joke he made to the children turned into "relatives".
Because of this relationship, Qian Zhongping was really willing to give. Not only did she enthusiastically pack a sack of cabbage for Tang Zhitong, she also packed half a sack of sweet potatoes.
You can’t refuse it even if you want it. You don’t even have to return the sack.
Qian Zhongping did this for two reasons: firstly, she wanted to get closer to Tang Zhitong; secondly, after her husband Tian Genfu changed his job, the family became much more well-off and had no shortage of sweet potatoes and cabbages.
Tang Zhitong was quite envious of Qian Zhongping and Tian Genfu, and their living environment.
This is the family area of the transfer office, which can also be called a compound. There are many drivers living nearby, and their family situations are similar, so there is no jealousy.
In this regard, Shijia Hutong on Huashi Street is far behind. If Tang Zhitong wants to make something with a strong smell, he has to use a cheating device, otherwise the neighbors will know that the Tang family is making delicious food just by smelling the smell, like an alarm.
On the way back, Tang Zhitong put a few apples and pears into his pocket from the space, intending to make some spicy cabbage with old Beijing flavor for classmate Xiao Wang.
When Tang Zhitong returned home, the old and young in the family had already stored most of the cabbages in the cellar, leaving some on the ground, apparently preparing for Tang Zhitong to make sauerkraut.
"Why are you carrying so much?" When Xiao Wang saw her husband carrying a sack and half a sack in his hands, she went forward to help him with a look of surprise on her face.
"Oh, don't mention it. We're relatives now. Don't transfer the things to others. It's just a few steps away." Tang Zhitong did not give the things to Xiao Wang. Instead, he put them at the entrance of the cellar. After putting them down, he told Xiao Wang the whole story.
"I'll teach you a lesson. Don't talk nonsense in the future." Student Wang covered her lips lightly and laughed so hard that her body shook. As for what Qian Zhongping said about her child's job, she was not worried. There were still more than ten years left, so it was too early to consider it now.
"Well. Put the fruit in the house first. I'll pick the cabbage to make sauerkraut." Tang Zhitong did not argue. He took out the apples and pears from his pocket and handed them to Xiao Wang.
"Sister-in-law, I want to eat an apple." Hearing that there were apples, Fengzhi used a flash.
"These are for cooking, not for you as snacks. I'll give you roasted sweet potatoes tonight." The apples were not big and there were not many of them. Tang Zhitong was afraid that Xiao Wang would be soft-hearted, so he quickly stopped him.
"Okay." Feng Zhi pouted but didn't say anything back.
"What dishes require fruits?" After putting down the apples and pears, Xiao Wang came back and asked quietly.
"Kimchi is a kind of pickled vegetable in the old city of Sijiu. It is sweet and spicy with a hint of sourness, and it is crunchy when chewed. Have you ever eaten it?" Tang Zhitong took out the cabbages given by Qian Zhongping one by one, intending to use them to make sauerkraut.
Don’t be fooled by the frozen outside of the cabbages that the commune gave to Tian Genfu. Each cabbage has a core inside, which can be used to make sauerkraut and spicy cabbage. After being pickled successfully, they are all tender. Wow, the taste is much better than the cabbage stalks.
"No, I'm already greedy now that you mention it." Student Wang said as he helped to pick off the frozen cabbage leaves.
"It's best to have a sealed container for pickled spicy cabbage, but unfortunately we don't have one at home, so we can only make do with a small amount, and the taste may not be quite as good." Tang Zhitong said with regret.
"My mother has one, but it's not big." After hearing what her husband said, Xiao Wang suddenly remembered that she had seen it before.
"Wow, your house has quite a lot of stuff. How come I've never seen it before after going there so many times?" Tang Zhitong was a little surprised.
"When my father was still alive, he bought some to pickle peppers. Later, my mother also tried to pickle them, but her skills were not good enough and she spoiled a whole jar of them. Then she put them under the bed and they became dust."
"Oh, I see. It's the kind of jar with a small bowl on top? That's for pickling Sichuan pickles. I'll try to pickle some for you later." Although both are sealed, the two containers are probably not the same thing at all.
"Okay, I'll bring it back next time." Student Wang said straightforwardly.
"Okay, as long as Director Ye has no objection."
"Make the best use of it. At worst, I can give her some after pickling it. It's okay."
Since Xiao Wang said so, Tang Zhitong had to prepare fresh vegetables, because Sichuan pickles are mostly made from radish tops, cabbage stalks, green vegetable stems, cucumbers, and beans, and are pickled with pickled peppers and pickled garlic.
When people talk about kimchi, the first thing that comes to mind is probably South Korean kimchi. The application for kimchi to be listed as a world heritage site has caused a lot of controversy online.
It's okay for China, but not for the Koreans. After all, they can't survive without kimchi, and they have to hold protests if the cabbage harvest fails.
However, after the millennium, the kimchi that Korea is so proud of began to be imported from Shandong Province, and later they simply started to import finished products.
If you think about it carefully, it's quite pitiful. Not only was the country built on someone else's base, but even the army pot has become a rare delicacy. If you can eat three taels of beef, it's considered the New Year. People are reluctant to buy a whole watermelon.
In the eyes of some people, the reason why Oppa has a good figure is because his diet is mainly vegetarian.
It would be strange if eating coarse food was not good.
Kimchi has a long history in China, and it can be found in both the Book of Songs and Qi Min Yao Shu.
Across the vast land of China, the hardworking Chinese people have adapted to local conditions and made kimchi into something very special.
The most famous should be Sichuan pickles, known as the soul of Sichuan cuisine.
The people of Sichuan attach great importance to kimchi jars and brine. Just like Old Mrs. Tang passed the jar of pickled eggs to her daughter-in-law, kimchi jars and brine can also be passed down from generation to generation in Sichuan.
Sichuan pickles are very wild. They can not only pickle vegetables, but also meat.
The most famous ones are pickled pepper chicken feet and pickled pepper pork skin. Although they are so spicy that your mouth hurts, you can’t stop eating them because the taste is so tempting.
There are also sour bamboo shoots in Guangxi Province, three-color pickles in Guangdong Province, etc., which are all evolved from kimchi.
More popular dishes include pickled fish and old-style pickled cabbage beef noodles. The pickled cabbage used in these dishes is produced in many southern provinces, but after the incident of them being stepped on by feet was exposed, a brand was ruined.
In comparison, the financial product with the saying "two taels of wine for one tael of gold" has always been made by stepping on the wine yeast barefoot, and it is only used by young girls. Wow, does it look like pre-milk tea?
Other provinces also have similar things, which are less well-known but are indeed indispensable in the local area.
A few days ago, when we were helping the commune harvest cabbages, Lu Jian told them about their experience. Whenever a matchmaker goes to propose marriage, the girl’s mother will first ask: How many sauerkraut jars does this young man have at home?
If there are many sauerkraut jars, it means the family is well-off and it will be easier to find a partner.
"How are we going to eat all this frozen cabbage?" Zhang Guifang was worried when she saw the cabbage leaves that the couple had just picked out. "Feed the chickens?" Tang Zhitong glanced at the chicken coop. There were five chickens. They had been eating too much cabbage recently. There was diarrhea all over the floor. The smell was so strong that it made her feel sick.
"I have diarrhea." Zhang Guifang shook her head and asked, "How about I soak some beans and make some tofu ourselves, and use the bean dregs to make some small tofu to eat."
"Okay. Let's use the cabbage leaves and forget about the stalks below. If you really can't finish it, just throw it away to avoid getting an upset stomach." Tang Zhitong nodded in agreement. People can eat frozen cabbage leaves, but the taste is a little worse, and they have to be eaten quickly, otherwise they will go bad.
Small tofu, also known as dregs tofu, is made from the discarded bean dregs from tofu making, mixed with cabbage or other green vegetables and lightly fried or stewed. It is watery and slightly acrid in the mouth, and tastes okay, but you can't eat too much, otherwise you will easily get bloating and diarrhea.
Zhang Guifang agreed and turned back to the house to soak the soybeans.
"By the way, Mom, soak some more soybeans. My classmate said we should get together, and there are not many vegetables at this time of year, so I'll bring some tofu." Tang Zhitong suddenly thought of his roommate and was worrying about what vegetables to bring, and now he has it.
"Okay. Let's send some to my in-laws too." Zhang Guifang was not stingy and responded readily.
"Our mom can also make tofu?" Xiao Wang asked quietly.
"Yes, I did in my early years." Tang Zhitong didn't say much. In fact, Zhang Guifang had made tofu for several years. After the Japanese invaded Beijing, the food supply situation deteriorated sharply. The Zhang family had no source of beans, so they could no longer make tofu.
The money tree couldn't make any money, which led to what happened later.
Making tofu is one of the three greatest pains in life, which is why Zhang Guifang was so resentful of the Zhang family.
"That's amazing." Student Xiao Wang, who didn't know the inside story, praised from the bottom of his heart.
"Hehe, it tastes even better. Stew it with cabbage, or just dip it in some dipping sauce, it will be more fragrant." The past cannot be retrieved, especially since it was Zhang Guifang's sad story, Tang Zhitong did not tell Xiao Wang.
"Oh, you're making me hungry. I haven't eaten real tofu very often this year." Student Xiao Wang gathered the cabbage stalks and put them in a pile.
Since September, even if tofu is occasionally available on the market, the quality is not very good. It is black and loose and not tasty at all. Zhang Guifang only bought it once. Later, she would rather eat pickles than buy such tofu.
"You can eat it tomorrow at the earliest." After a while, Xiao Wang had said "I'm greedy" twice, which had never happened before. Tang Zhitong sighed inwardly, stood up, washed his hands, and prepared to pack up and make sauerkraut first.
Any container except metal one can be used to make sauerkraut, but people seem to prefer using large jars.
The jar at home had been cleaned and boiled water was prepared. Tang Zhitong moved the jar to the room where he used to sleep to avoid it freezing outside in the winter, and then started to pick the cabbage directly.
Sauerkraut is not difficult to make. Just wash it, remove the roots and old leaves, and arrange it neatly in a jar, leaving as few gaps as possible.
If the cabbage is large, you can cut it into two cloves before putting it in.
With the careful peeling of Tang Zhitong and Xiao Wang, the cabbages were small and firm, so this step was saved.
The next step is to pour in boiled water. You can add salt or not, but you must put something heavy on the cabbage to prevent it from floating up.
It is said that stones are used in Northeast China, and this stone has been soaked in the sauerkraut jar for years. It not only makes the pickles flavorful, but also carries its own bacteria, which can be passed on to future generations.
The Tang family had not made any preparations in advance, so naturally there were no regular stones. Tang Zhitong had to settle for the next best thing and used city wall bricks.
After cleaning, scald it with boiling water several times before putting it into the tank.
If you are a particular person, you will cover the mouth of the tank with plastic cloth, then tie it up, and try to keep it sealed.
But the Tang family didn't have the conditions, so they just used cool white water to diffuse over the wall bricks.
There is a reason why boiled water is used. The reason why sauerkraut becomes sauerkraut is because of the fermentation of lactic acid bacteria, which are anaerobic bacteria. The oxygen in boiled water is the least among all types of water, which can greatly increase the success rate.
The boiled water flows over the bricks of the city wall, creating an oxygen-free environment for the cabbage below.
Finally, Tang Zhitong nailed a jar cover on top with a wooden board and placed a broken brick on top to prevent dirt from getting in.
"Okay, we'll be able to eat it in a month or so." Tang Zhitong clapped his hands. He felt a great sense of accomplishment as he had taken the first step in a long journey.
"Does it take so long?" Classmate Xiao Wang, who had been helping out, was a little surprised to hear this.
"The temperature is around 10 to 20 degrees, and it will take another 20 days to get above that. A month or so is an exaggeration. Let's go, wash our hands and have dinner. After dinner, we can pickle some kimchi." Tang Zhitong clapped his hands and went into the next room.
Zhang Guifang has already prepared dinner, which is still steamed bread and stewed cabbage. They ate all the dumplings from lunch. The only difference is that there is soup tonight, the dumpling soup from lunch.
The dumplings were boiled in the same pot of water several times, so it was inevitable that some of them would break. The soup was brown and mixed with flour. It tasted salty. The taste was no worse than egg drop soup.
Fengzhi ate half of the steamed bread, drank a large bowl of soup, slurped down a bowl of stewed cabbage, and wiped her mouth after finishing her meal: "Brother, you said you wanted roasted sweet potatoes."
"Okay, I'll bake it for you after we finish eating. Fengzhen, would you like a piece?"
"Okay." Fengzhen agreed, broke off the edge of the steamed bread in her hand that she had gnawed, put it into the dumpling soup, and put the remaining half back into the small bamboo basket that contained the steamed bread.
"Mom, can I bake you a piece too?"
"Okay, then we'll save some food tonight." Zhang Guifang agreed readily and acted exactly like Fengzhen, breaking off the edge of the steamed bread with tooth marks and putting the rest back.
The sweet potatoes that Zhang Guifang bought, plus those given by Qian Zhongping, are enough for the family to eat intermittently for a while. In order to keep them fresh, except for those to be roasted tonight, the others have been stored in the cellar. The family will not be short of sweet potatoes for the time being.
After dinner, when Tang Zhitong returned to his room, in addition to sweet potatoes, he also brought a bunch of garlic.
After putting the sweet potatoes into the furnace, Tang Zhitong distributed the garlic to Xiao Wang and his two sisters, while he himself prepared to give the cabbage a SPA.
"Why are you picking so much garlic?" asked Xiao Wang puzzled.
"It's for pickling spicy cabbage. Go ahead and peel it. After peeling it, you have to get up early tomorrow to pickle the cabbage." Tang Zhitong said and went out.
Old BJ’s spicy cabbage is a bit complicated to make, which may be one of the reasons why it is not very popular.
In addition to the side dishes, the cabbage needs to be washed and cut, and each piece is rubbed with fine salt. Then it is placed in a basin and pressed with heavy objects to kill the moisture and remove the raw smell.
This process will take about ten hours, and it will be ready for use tomorrow morning.
After cooking the cabbage, Tang Zhitong took out a bunch of chili peppers and steamed them on the stove.
Sautéing chili peppers is a technical job because it is so easy to get burnt.
If you want to make spicy cabbage, the peppers must not be mushy but also crispy, otherwise the rolling pin will not be able to break them up.
(End of this chapter)
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